Growth of Mega-Cities Will Consume Swaths of Cropland in Africa and Asia

The growth of mega-cities will eliminate massive areas of valuable cropland in some parts of the world by the year 2030, according to a new international study co-authored by Yale Prof. Karen Seto.

According to the study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, some 300,000 square kilometers of fertile cropland worldwide — an area roughly the size of New Jersey — will be lost.

While that accounts for only about 2 percent loss of today’s global cropland, the losses will be acute in some countries and regions, particularly in Africa and Asia, said Seto, Professor of Geography and Urbanization Science at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies (F&ES).